OLIVE BRANCH, MS-- More convenience or more congestion? That's a question Olive Branch residents are asking about a road expansion project.
There are plans to widen Pleasant Hill Road from Goodman Road to Nail Road. This stretch of road currently has two lanes. The city engineer envisions it having four lanes, plus a turn lane. Folks who live in the subdivisions nearby wonder how that will change their lives.
“I do think it's going to bring more traffic” says Jocelyne Stratton. “There's a lot of children in these subdivisions.”
“They don't want to live next to an expressway” says Olive Branch City Engineer Steve Bigelow.
Bigelow says he hears Jocelyne's concerns loud and clear, but this area is growing and he says Pleasant Hill is becoming a major travel route.
“Probably within a year there will be about 13,000 cars. Probably within the next 10 years there will be 16,000 and thereafter probably about 23,000 cars per day” says Bigelow.
The price tag for the expansion project is $3 million. Most of that money will come from the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Bigelow says right now, there's another opportunity to get money.
“DeSoto County is offering $650,000 toward the design and right of way acquisition for phase one.”
It will be up to the city's board of aldermen to approve that money transfer, and they'll also have the final say on the project moving forward.
Bigelow says whether people like it or not, more development along pleasant hill is going to happen.
“There's commercial development that's been approved on Church at Pleasant Hill and you have to make adequate transportation system for this growth and you plan for the future, not today.”
Jocelyne Stratton says she understands.
“It's kind of a two-way street, literally” Stratton says laughing.
Residents along Pleasant Hill Road will be able to voice their opinions on the project during a public hearing Tuesday, November 3rd. That meeting begins at 6:30 PM at the Municipal Court building in Olive Branch.
Bigelow says construction on the Pleasant Hill expansion is scheduled to start in the spring of 2011.
